Proud to be a Husker fan
As most of you know I’m an unapologetic Husker fan. I’m not a rabid foaming at the mouth fan who thinks my team is #1 all the time. I’m a realist but I always love my Huskers. Win or lose doesn’t matter.
A couple weeks ago we went into Blacksburg and lost a one point game in a heartbreaker. We outplayed them and should have won however the inability to put the ball in the endzone and a phenomenal mental breakdown that had us 1st and goal inside the ten yard line and ended with us punting on 4th and 42, I know wow, made us our own worst enemy.
Sorry a little detour now back to why I’m proud.
The following week there were letters to the editor in Blacksburg newspapers from Husker fans thanking Hokie fans for the way they were welcomed and treated. Then I found out because they were treated so well in Lincoln two years ago they wanted to return the favor. Not that they aren’t great people anyway. It was nice to know the kindness was a return of the kindness they received.
Then this. A blog post from Jay Walker. A sports writer from Louisiana writing for ESPN. I won’t repost the entire thing here just a couple of key quotes:
Been to Manhattan, Lubbock, Austin, Stillwater and College Station. College Station was probably the best. Folks say “Howdy” when they see you. And they say “welcome.”
Haven’t been to the Horseshoe, the Big House or Happy Valley. Nor have I seen Touchdown Jesus.
But I’ve been to College Football Nirvana.
It’s located in Lincoln, Nebraska.
And finally:
If the two teams should play again in the future, plan ahead Cajun Fans. Make the long drive or the relatively short flight. Come in Friday…leave Sunday. And, you will learn what REAL college football atmosphere is about.
Because, trust me…..there is no place like Nebraska.
So I’m always a proud Husker fan but today even more so. Thanks Husker fans for being the best in College Football.
Click through and read the whole thing, you’ll be proud too.
The SEC THINKS it has great atmoshphere……. by Jay Walker “from the birds nest” at ESPN1420 blogs
Global Warming Consensus
A couple of interesting things came to my attention over the weekend.
The first is a petition that’s been signed by over 30,000 scientists, 9,000 of which are PHD’s.
The second is an article from the Calgary Herald entitled Scientists pull an about face on global warming.
The money quote:
Latif is one of the leading climate modellers in the world. He is the recipient of several international climate-study prizes and a lead author for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He has contributed significantly to the IPCC’s last two five-year reports that have stated unequivocally that man-made greenhouse emissions are causing the planet to warm dangerously.
Yet last week in Geneva, at the UN’s World Climate Conference–an annual gathering of the so-called “scientific consensus” on man-made climate change –Latif conceded the Earth has not warmed for nearly a decade and that we are likely entering “one or even two decades during which temperatures cool.”
We cannot afford to allow the Obama administration to pass Cap and Trade or allow environmental groups to cripple our economy based on a faulty premise.
Silence
When was the last time you sat in total silence?
The greatest struggle in my life is finding a quiet place to sit in total silence waiting for the still small voice of my Father.
I love our house the back of it faces the front range of the Rocky Mountains and often in the morning I will sit at my kitchen table gazing at the beauty of God’s creation. Katharine Lee Bates was on Pikes Peak when she wrote the lyrics to ”America the Beautiful” and I am blessed to have Pikes Peak framed in my sliding glass doors . But we are also only 200 yards from I-25 and the noise that comes with it. I have learned to ignore it somewhat but it is a significant enemy to silence.
When Kim and I were first married we talked about having a house full of activity. A place where people would find refuge. A place where all our childrens friends would want to come. God has answered that prayer. Our home is full of activity with people coming and going. We love it but it presents a unique challenge when searching for a quiet place.
In Chuck Swindols book “Intimacy with the Almighty” he lists four disciplines essential for intimacy two of them are silence and solitude. Which to me are almost the same thing. In A.W. Tozer’s “The Purpose of Man” he lists seven keys to intimacy and the very first is quiet. Tozer says “I put quietness first bcause unless we can find a place without distraction, the rest is undermined.
Once we have made a practice of dwelling in a quiet place we are more easily able to dwell in the secret place. Brother Lawrence in “The Practice of the Presence of God” says ”what offering is more acceptable to God than thus throughout the day to quit the things of outward sense, and to withdraw to worshp Him within the secret places of the soul?”. Unless we have practiced being in a quiet place it is very difficult to dwell in the secret places of the soul throughout the day. Cultivating intimacy and recognizing the voice of God only comes through time and proximity.
I know I’m not alone in my struggle to find a quiet place. We must fight for it, make it a high priority, or we will slowly drift away from that most precious dwelling place where we are changed from Glory to Glory, where we become “like Him”, where we find rest, where He is my strong tower.
David understood the importance of dwelling in the secret place. I believe it was this practice that made him a man after God’s own heart. It was a recurring theme throughout his life and his writing. Among others he wrote:
He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty (Psalm 91:1), One thing I have desired of the Lord, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple (Psalm 27:4).
My prayer for you, and for me, today is that we would get a fresh revelation of His love and passion for close intimate fellowship with us. Make it a priority to find a quiet place this weekend and then go there often.
Blessings as you walk in Him.
A Little Perspective On Healthcare
We are constantly hearing about the healthcare “crisis” in America with huge numbers being thrown around without context. When you hear about 46 million people without health insurance it most definitely sounds like a crisis but let’s add a little perspective.
According to Google Public Data the US population in July 2007 was 301,290,332 and according to the US Census the total number of people without health insurance in 2007 was 45,657,000 which is just over 15% of the total population.
Stop right here and ask yourself the question is it a crises and do we really need to fundamentally change the best healthcare in the world for 15% of the population?
I already hear some of you saying “but The World Health Organization says we rank #37 in the world in healthcare.” That study was last done almost 10 years ago and only looks at certain aspects of healthcare. It does not rank quality of care only certain outcomes of the system. I’m not saying we have the best delivery system or the cheapest. What I am saying is nobody from the United States takes a plane ride to France when they have stage 3 malignant melanoma. People do however come to the United States from all over the world to have treatment for all kinds of health issues. Most notably those in nationalized healthcare systems where care is rationed. Also an ABC News/USA Today/Kaiser Family Foundation health care poll released in October 2006 found that 89% of Americans are satisfied with their own personal health insurance. To be fair only 44% in the same poll said they were satisfied with the overall system. So again I’m not saying we have the best system I’m saying we have the best quality of care.
Let’s go back to the numbers again we’ll come back to the system another day.
The 46 million number is accurate but misleading at best. Included in that number are illegal aliens. According to the 2007 US Census the number of illegal aliens in the US was about 13 million. From the little research I did I found estimates anywhere from 6 to 20 million. On September 9 2009 President Obama used the 30 million uninsured number presumably leaving out the number of illegal aliens. By his estimation there are about 16 million illegal aliens in the US. Lets use the Presidents numbers which again are 16 million illegal and 30 million uninsured.
The next number we have to look at is the number of people who can get it but choose not to. Carl Bialik of the Wall Street Journal says:
some people are eligible for health insurance but don’t know it and many can afford it but don’t want it. About 43% of uninsured nonelderly adults have incomes greater than 2.5 times the poverty level, according to a report released Tuesday by the business-backed Employment Policies Institute.
If your income is less than $22, 025 annually for a family of four you are in poverty by US standards which means those above have incomes exceeding $55,000 annually. After taking out the 43% of 30 million we are left with about 17 million without access.
Mr. Bialik also quotes Michael Davern to point out a flaw in the census numbers:
Meanwhile, Census’s state-by-state counts of the uninsured tend to be much higher than state surveys, which have their own flaws. For instance, some don’t reach people without landline phones.
The national agency assumes that people who don’t answer its health-care questions are much more likely to be uninsured. But that overstates the number of those without coverage, according to Michael Davern, an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota’s public health school, who has been studying the discrepancy under a contract with the Census Bureau. To adjust for that overestimate, he recommends that Census adjust its national count of uninsured people downward by 2.5 million. The agency is still considering whether to implement that change.
So now were left with potentially 14.5 million without access.
And finally there are people in transition. Those between jobs who for a month or a few weeks don’t have insurance. They’re not uninsurable and can afford it they just don’t happen to have it on the day they filled out the form or answered the phone call. I have no idea what that number is but in July of 2007 the US unemployment rate was 4.7% or about 14 million people. I’m not going to hazard a guess as to how many didn’t take COBRA.
The bottom line is the actual number is somewhere between 12 and 30 million people. I’ll split the difference with you and say were talking about 16 million people without access to health insurance. The system does need help that is not my point. Even if there are only a million people not receiving adequate healthcare this is a real problem we must address however;
is it a “crisis” when only 5% of the total population needs help and the number could actually be less than 3%?
Tags: Healthcare, Politics
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Walking Together
Our family has only one car and in a city the size of Colorado Springs with a family as active as ours this can present quite a challenge on some days.
Recently Kim and I were looking at our schedule for the day and realized we needed to be in several different places at the same time. Since I ride my bicycle a lot and don’t have to be dressed professionaly I volunteered to walk from a meeting at the church which is about 5 miles.
It was a beautiful day I had plenty of time and was in no particular hurry so I strode away from the church at a purposeful but leisurely pace. Very soon I began to catch up with a young man just ahead of me. As it became clear I was going to overtake him I began the conversation in my head.
Should I just walk on by? should I acknowledge him, engage him in conversation? should I walk with him? Very soon the decision was made for me. He turned and said “Good Morning, where are you headed?”
As I walked with him I learned he is 21 yrs old from Nevada where he was the son of a prostitute and grew up in a crack house. Began selling drugs at a very early age and at the age of 17 he and his fiance came to Colorado to deliver some sold product where he was arrested and placed in jail in Colorado Springs. While there he received his GED and a certificate in computers. He now holds a good job but does not know how to drive and must rely on others to drive him. Today the ride didn’t show up thus the hike.
We also talked about his faith and his understanding of God and how God had a plan for him. At the end of the line for him I was able to give him my phone number, pray for him and encourage him to press into relationship with the Father who loves him and wants him to walk in the fullness of all He has created him to be.
The longer I study and consider Jesus time on earth the more I am convinced He came at a time without mass media, email, public transportation or interstates. He came at a time when people walked together. I think of Jesus walking for hours along the road with His disciples and the day of His resurrection when He walked to Emmaus with two men. Things were discussed and taught in ways we very seldom have opportunity for in our cars driving 4.5 mph over the speed limit.
Teaching classroom style certainly has it’s place but it’s only the beginning. We must spend time with those entrusted to us walking with them and answering questions in context using our surroundings to teach and illustrate. So much is missed and incorrectly inferred when we download information to those entrusted to us and leave them to work it out on their own.
This week as you are considering the conversations your going to have with those entrusted to you or with your wife, husband, children etc. etc. consider going for a walk.
That’s My King!
Do You Know Him?
That’s My King! from Albert Martin on Vimeo.
My Songs
